Thank you, Chairperson. Chairperson, South Africa is an extremely violent society; subjecting millions of citizens to a fear-ridden life because people know that they can be mugged any moment, raped anywhere and even killed in the comfort of their own homes.
The escalation of violence in our society is also an indication of the collapse of the state, the inability of state to maintain and enforce laws to protect citizens from having their fundamental rights violated. Criminals and potential criminals violate other people's rights with impunity, they know that because our law enforcement capacity has collapsed and nothing happens to people who inflict pain on others in this country.
There are no consequences for perpetrators of violent crimes. South Africans, you are on your own. However, Chairperson, the escalation of violent crimes in our society is only a symptom of a much bigger and systematic problem. We are a society whose very ... [Inaudible] ... foundations are moulded in violence. The dispossession of people from their land was a violent crime, the forced labour on farms and in the mines was a violent crime and having some forms of work exclusively reserved for black people such as domestic work and gardening, is violence.
Having to call a shack without toilets and electricity a home is violence. Having small children electrocuted by electric lines carelessly installed by Eskom is a violent
crime against society. The greatest violence of all crimes are those we have come to accept as society, that one group of people should have to struggle all their lives just to put a plate of food on their table every day, while the another group of people have more food for their dogs.
The prevalence of violent crimes in society therefore is a systematic and structural problem. But because we are a hypocritical people, we demonise some forms of violence and glorify others. Violence is violence in whichever form it manifests itself and we must deal with violence comprehensively as a society. Attempts at fighting violent crimes therefore must take into consideration that crime generally is a socioeconomic consequence and should be fundamentally uprooted by economically developing our communities and providing would be criminals with quality jobs and careers. No one is born a criminal, society breeds criminals.
It is an embarrassment that today, five years after a national football team captain, Senzo Meyiwa, was violently murdered and no one has ever been held
accountable for that crime. We need a new deal of reclaiming our society from the hands of the criminals as a society. The deal must include the deployment of a special task team to deal with gangsterism and drugs in places such as the Cape Flats in Cape Town. This cannot be, and cannot be done by soldiers.
It must include the improvement of the capacity of crime intelligence to include the usage of technology to solve crimes, the training of additional detectives and the re- capacitation of Community Policing Forums across the country and encourage the formation of crime watch and street committees in crime hotspot communities and areas.
This war against crime is winnable and it requires a capable state, which we do not have at this moment. I thank you. [Applause.]